Back to basics is the message as Bognor Regis Town seek win at Folkestone

The manager’s observations came after he saw Bognor battle out a 0-0 draw with Hastings United at Nyewood Lane last week in a game that they controlled but couldn’t exploit their superiority.

Since then they shared the points in a 2-2 home draw with Cray Wanderers at the Lane – read Liam Goodley’s report here – and they will be keen to start turning draws into wins.

Profligacy in front of goal and a succession of errors that led to needless lost possession served to frustrate Blake – but he isn’t panicking just yet, and firmly believes the Rocks are on the brink of enjoying a decent run.

And despite his frustrations, Blake was quick to point out the positives from yet another superb display from on-loan Pompey keeper Toby Steward.

His charges get the chance to go again at the Buildkent Stadium, says Blake, who added: “We do look as if we are lacking in confidence, a shadow of the team we were earlier in the season. We don't look brave enough on the ball, we're not creating enough chances -- and we don't look as if we are going to score. The task now is to find that confidence from within and be better, simple as that.

“Of course, there are still positives to take from the draw -- one of those is the form of Toby, on loan to us from Portsmouth. He's improving immensely and he made some good saves against Hastings and he is growing in stature.

“With Toby, you have got to take into consideration the age of the lad at just 17. But we have to stop putting him under that amount of pressure by stop giving sloppy balls away in possession and making so many unforced errors.

“We're better than we are showing at the minute but a draw wasn’t the worst result and before the defeat to Haringey we enjoyed four victories. There is no problem with our effort but we definitely need to be better with the ball and create more -- and I know, and the players know, that they can do this.

'We did it earlier in the season and we can do it again. I thought Hastings were solid enough and were well coached but I also thought we could have got after them a bit more than we did.

“If you don't put pressure on you don't get the rewards Yes, we have a few players missing through injury and six of our players are under 19 -- and we had a 17-year-old and a 16-year-old on the bench -- so we do need to have a bit of perspective.

“We welcomed back Dan Gifford on loan from Pompey and we played him just behind the front two just so we had attacking options and he played higher when Matt Paterson went off. He hasn't trained with us much so it's going to take a little bit of time but we are delighted to have him with us that's for sure."